What is the Purpose of Indoor Workouts? - Coach Tip Tuesday

Indoor workouts.  For some athletes, they invoke feelings of dread and are demotivating.  Other athletes thrive off of indoor workouts because of how comfortable and safe they can feel.  While year-round indoor training has become more common over the last decade or so, the Winter season prompts more athletes to do workouts indoors more than any other time of year.  But what is the true purpose of indoor workouts? 

Many athletes operate under a bit of a false notion that the main point of indoor workouts is to “check the box” and get workouts completed.  There is some truth to this; doing workouts indoors fosters consistency, which is one of the most important things any endurance athlete needs to be successful in terms of reaching their goals.  That being said, simply going through the motions of completing a workout isn’t actually enough.  In order to give themselves the highest probability of success when it comes to achieving their goals, athletes need to mentally engage with indoor workouts and use them as an opportunity to replicate the specificity of their goal as much as possible so they can build their skills and confidence.

This is especially true for athletes who train indoors for a high percentage of the year.  Athletes whose goals revolve around multiport or open water swimming will be training for the swim primarily indoors and/or in facilities that are not open water (aka pools).  Triathletes, runners, and/or cyclists who reside in colder climates will likely also be cycling and running indoors during the Winter season when outdoor conditions are too unpleasant, uncomfortable, or unsafe to do workouts outdoors.  When indoor training represents a non-trivial percentage of an athlete’s overall training time and volume over the course of an Annual Training Plan, it’s incredibly important to consider the specifics of the event they are training for and to implement habits and behaviors that align with those specifics in all workouts - whether they be indoors or outdoors.

The Misconceptions About Indoor Training

Over the years, I’ve observed a high percentage of athletes dismiss how important it is to replicate real-world conditions that they will be encountering on race day in their indoor workouts.  The truth of the matter is that athletes tend to engage in behaviors during indoor workouts that don’t resemble anything close to what they would be doing outdoors and/or on race day.  Some of these include (but are not limited to):

• Riding on an indoor stationary bike
• Riding on an indoor spin bike
• Sitting up while riding indoors without keeping at least one hand on the handlebars
• Using Erg Mode
• Using a phone screen or computer
• Using peripheral equipment (such as hydration vessels, indoor tables/shelves, fueling choices) that do not replicate how you would be hydrating or eating during outdoor workouts
• Forcefully pushing off the wall in pools

While some of these behaviors may seem insignificant or innocent enough, doing them often enough over a period of many weeks or months adds up.  The body and the mind get used to these behaviors.  They become habits.  Then, race day comes.  If you - consciously or unconsciously - attempt to do something different on race day than what you did in training, you reduce your probability of success because you are attempting something new on race day.  In short, if you engage in behaviors and habits like these during indoor workouts, you are not practicing and building the habits and behaviors that do carry higher probabilities of success.

The best advice I can offer athletes about how to engage with indoor workouts is this: 

If you wouldn’t do it during an outdoor workout or on race day, don’t do it while you are completing an indoor workout.  

Yes, there will be things that are actually unavoidable that must be different during indoor workouts than they are during outdoor workouts.  (For instance, you’ll be staying relatively in the same place during an indoor workout, you won’t encounter weather, etc.)  Especially because there are things that are automatically different about indoor workouts that cannot be changed, keeping this advice in your mind - to seek to control the behaviors and habits that you can while doing an indoor workout - will help you engage with good habits and behaviors that you can build and progress over time, whether you are doing your workouts indoors or outdoors.

The list of behaviors and habits above are the most common ones I observe athletes doing indoors that are not helpful when it comes to successfully executing outdoor workouts, goals, and/or races.  Because these are the most common unhelpful behaviors (and therefore the behaviors that most athletes are most likely to defend, rationalize, and justify), I thought it would be helpful to go through why each of these behaviors and habits can be harmful when it comes to training and reaching one’s goals.

Riding on an Indoor Stationary Bike

A common misconception that people have about cycling is that all types of bicycles and things that resemble bicycles are created equal and can be swapped in for each other.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  While different types of bicycles certainly resemble each other, they are not the same.

An indoor stationary bike is a piece of exercise equipment that is specifically designed to mimic the action of riding a bicycle while one is indoors.  That being said, it is definitely not a bicycle.  It is a machine that is designed to help people establish and maintain cardiovascular fitness and it is appropriate for a broad range of ability and fitness levels, but it is not a bicycle.  For any athlete who has a goal that involves riding a bicycle, an indoor stationary bike is a poor substitute for the specificity of their intended goal.

The most significant reason why this is so is because riding one’s actual bicycle is necessary in order to establish, train, and maintain good pedaling mechanics, good posture, and one’s overall bike fit.  Just like anything else in endurance sports training, it takes time and repetition for the body to adapt to riding a bicycle.  Riding anything other than your actual bicycle takes time away from being able to encourage these adaptations and instead has you spending time developing habits that are not specific or useful for the goals that matter to you.  If you are constantly riding something that isn’t your bike and isn’t your bike fit, you will not be developing the specific fitness you need to do so, and thus you will find the transition to riding your bike incredibly challenging.

All of this being said, because it is designed to establish and maintain cardiovascular fitness, an indoor stationary bike can serve as a substitute when maintaining cardiovascular fitness is the only goal.  As such, using an indoor stationary bike is appropriate as a one- or two-off substitution, perhaps when an athlete is traveling and cannot bring their own bicycle with them, but does have access to a gym during their travels.  Using an indoor stationary bike once or twice in a situation like this is a decent way to maintain consistency, and using one once or twice will not establish the aforementioned poor riding habits, mechanics, or postures.

Riding on an Indoor Spin Bike

An indoor spin bike is another piece of exercise equipment that is specifically designed to mimic the action of riding a road bicycle while indoors.  While it is very similar to an indoor stationary bike, there are significant enough differences that I am giving it its own category for the purposes of this conversation about indoor workouts.  An indoor spin bike has a heavier fly wheel than an indoor stationary bike, which is what makes it mimic what it’s like to ride a road bike.  This means that an indoor spin bike is harder to pedal than an indoor stationary bike.  As such, it’s a piece of exercise equipment that is suitable for people with higher fitness levels.

All of the reasons why riding an indoor stationary bike isn’t an appropriate substitute for riding a bicycle apply to indoor spin bikes.  That being said, indoor spin bikes are also used for indoor spin classes, which are group fitness workouts known for their relatively high levels of exertion.  Because people can feel their exertion level and how “hard” they are working, indoor spin classes are generally loved by people who thrive off of those feelings of hard work.  This being said: Indoor spin classes are very good exercise classes, but they are not necessarily appropriate for athletes who are training.  

Remember: there is an important distinction between exercise and training.  Exercise is physical activity completed for its possible health benefits.  Training is physical activity with a specific, longer-term goal in mind (usually improved performance in a particular sport, whether that performance improvement is to do a longer distance than you’ve done before or to do something faster than you’ve done it before).  For endurance athletes especially, the goal is to build one’s ability to go longer and be stronger while doing it.  As such, training workouts cannot all be workouts where one feels a high level of exertion; the point of many endurance training workouts is to build the ability to feel like you can, well, endure and maintain a consistent effort for a longer period of time.

Indoor spin bikes - including the popular Peloton indoor spin bikes - are not the best choice for endurance athletes who are seeking to improve their sport-specific performance and to achieve specific goals in endurance sports that involve bicycles.  In short: They are not good choices for cyclists or multisport athletes.  That being said, they can serve as good cross-training modalities for athletes who do not have goals involving bicycles - such as runners or open water swimmers.

Sitting Up While Riding Indoors

Sitting up while riding indoors without keeping at least one hand on the handlebar is probably the most common unhelpful behavior I’ve seen athletes engage in during indoor workouts.  I used to see it all the time in the group indoor cycling trainer classes I coached when I was the Head Coach of Fleet Feet Syracuse’s Triathlon Program and without fail, I need to remind each athlete who I am conducting a Bike Fit for to maintain a riding position that mimics what they would be doing outside while we’re doing their Bike Fit.  Consciously or unconsciously, athletes sit up all the time while riding indoors, whether they are riding their own bicycle on an indoor cycling trainer or whether they are riding an indoor stationary bike or an indoor spin bike.

With extremely limited exceptions, no athlete will ever ride outdoors or in a race without at least one hand on the handlebars.  It’s completely, utterly unsafe to do so.  Thus, it’s an absolutely horrible habit to get into while riding indoors.  Every time you sit up without at least one hand on the handlebars, you are breaking your bike fit and are therefore not establishing the posture, mechanics, or endurance that is required to maintain your bike fit while actually riding your bike outdoors or in a race.  As such, when you do seek to ride your bicycle continuously outdoors and you need to keep at least one hand on the handlebars at all times, you will feel fatigued sooner and thus your overall performance will suffer.  Athletes should keep at least one hand on the handlebars at all times while riding indoors to replicate this real-world specificity.

Using Erg Mode

Since its introduction into the cycling training space about ten years ago, athletes have grown to love Erg Mode.  Erg Mode is short for “ergometer mode”, which is a setting used by smart trainers (such as a Wahoo KICKR or a Tacx NEO) and training apps (such as Zwift and TrainerRoad) to achieve a prescribed power output by adjusting the resistance of the trainer to match your cadence.  Power is a calculation of torque (how hard you are pressing on the pedals of a bicycle) multiplied by cadence (the speed at which the pedals of a bicycle are turning) and is measured in watts.  Erg Mode uses these two factors to ensure that you hit the prescribed power output by measuring what cadence you are riding at and adjusting the resistance of the trainer so that the torque is appropriate to hit the prescribed power output.

There are some benefits to Erg Mode, but there are also some significant drawbacks.  One of the biggest of these is that Erg Mode does not require the rider to shift gears since the trainer itself is controlling the resistance.  In essence, the trainer is forcing you to ride; you are not riding on the trainer in the same way that you would be riding outside.  In this way, Erg Mode is a bit like running on a treadmill (where the use of the continuous moving belt makes it so that the treadmill is running you instead of you running the treadmill).  

Shifting gears on a bicycle is an incredibly important, fundamental cycling skill.  While it may seem alluring to be able to “just pedal” and hit the prescribed power targets of a workout without having to do any other mental or physical work, hitting the prescribed targets and parameters of a workout is not the only important thing about workouts.  Learning to hone your sense of self-awareness, improving your tactical skills while riding, and learning how to efficiently and properly shift your gears to achieve both planned parameters and desired outcomes while riding is critical if you are going to ride well both outdoors and on race day.  For all of these reasons, using Erg Mode (especially if one uses it because it is “easier” than other options) can put athletes at a disadvantage.

I recommend that athletes using smart trainers train in Resistance Mode, which puts a bit of resistance in play, but still requires you to shift your gears while riding to achieve the desired effort-based and/or power-based goals of intervals within a workout and the workout itself.  For trainers that use a percentage-based system to impose resistance, I recommend starting with 15-20% resistance, as this amount tends to mimic the rolling resistance one would encounter while riding outdoors.  You can adjust it up or down based on how you feel and based on your particular riding style.

Using a Phone Screen or a Computer

Using a phone screen or a computer during an indoor workout (of any kind - swimming, cycling, or running) is probably the second-most common unhelpful behavior that I observe athletes engaging in.  This has only gotten more prevalent as devices and tech companies have gotten more adept at commanding our time and attention and people have become more attached to their phones and devices.

It’s pretty safe to say that most athletes would not stop in the middle of an outdoor swim, ride, or run to scroll through Instagram, respond to an email, or conduct their online banking.  Being indoors (and therefore not having to pay as much attention to potential obstacles) does mean that it’s possible to use a phone or computer while also physically doing the action of completing a workout.  But just physically going through the motions of doing a workout isn’t sufficient when it comes to generating the highest probability that you will be able to successfully reach your goals.

Here’s the hard truth that most people don’t want to own up to: If you are using a phone screen or a computer during a workout, your attention is diverted to that, and away from your workout.  No matter how good of a multitasker you imagine yourself to be (and believe me, you are not as good of one as you imagine), you cannot be paying attention to what is on your phone or computer screen while also being significantly engaged with your workout.  Multitasking is a myth.  

I get it.  Indoor workouts are boring for a lot of athletes.  The fact that you are staying in the same place for a significant amount of time is tedious.  You are seeking some form of distraction or at least something to make the time pass more enjoyably.  You (falsely) think that you can effectively multitask and see this time during the indoor workout as “found time” to “catch up” on other things that you have going on in your life.  Watching a familiar show or listening to music while doing an indoor workout is totally fine, as both of these things don’t command as much of your cognitive resources as watching something new or responding to emails does.  

That being said, while it is possible to watch a show or listen to music while doing an indoor workout, I strongly recommend that you do so in a way that allows you to maintain good form, mechanics, and postures during said workout.  For example, if you want to watch something while you are riding on the indoor cycling trainer or running on a treadmill, set the screen up at eye level so your head position can be neutral and in the position it would be if you were outdoors.  Additionally, don’t hold the screen you are watching; set it up in such a way that you can see it at eye level without needing to physically hold it while you are watching it.

Using Peripheral Equipment

When you do indoor workouts, I recommend that you seek to replicate real-world conditions as much as possible across the board, and this includes how you hydrate and fuel.  It’s not uncommon for athletes to keep a little table next to their indoor cycling trainer to store bottles and food on so they have easy access to them during their ride.  Other athletes will use the shelves in treadmills to do the same during their runs.  Additionally, athletes will use different hydration vessels (such as cups, regular water bottles, etc.) and non-portable foods (such as sandwiches, messy snacks, etc.) from what they are able to use or carry with them outdoors.  All of these habits do not resemble what you’d need to be doing or want to be doing outdoors or on race day.

When training indoors, I recommend that you use the same gear and products in the same storage and configuration that you would be utilizing them outdoors.  This means using the same exact water bottles and vessels on your bicycle that you would use on an outdoor ride.  It means wearing any hydration vests, belts, or handhelds the same way you would carry them on an outdoor run.  It means using the same products in those hydration vessels that you would use outside.  It also means carrying any fueling products - such as gels, chews, blocks, waffles, etc. - on your person while running or riding or in storage containers mounted on your bicycle.  It also means accessing them and consuming them in the same way that you would outdoors.  (For instance, using only one hand to eat or drink on the bike.)

If you do this, the transition to outdoor training and racing will be much, much easier because you will have already established the habits and behaviors to properly fuel and hydrate yourself while you are moving.  You will be accustomed to the equipment and the products you’re using, and thus, you’ll have established a form of automation that is incredibly helpful for athletes.  The more things you can have become second-nature like this, the better for you, as it decreases the number of things you need to actively think about, thereby freeing your cognitive resources for things like the actual act of racing.

Forcefully Pushing Off Walls in Pools

Athletes with competitive swimming backgrounds rebel in earnest when I talk about how they shouldn’t forcefully push off walls in pools during their training swims, but this doesn’t mean that this isn’t sound advice for endurance athletes who have goals that involve open water swimming.  Competitive pool swimming and endurance open water swimming (whether on its own or as part of a multisport event such as a triathlon) are two entirely different sports.

When you are swimming in open water, there is no wall.  It’s literally that simple.  Thus, when you are training for the specificity of open water, you should not get yourself used to pushing forcefully off of pool walls.  Doing so artificially speeds up your swimming times and doesn’t get you used to the specific demand you have in open water swimming: To swim completely under your own power for the entire length of the swim.

Pushing off the pool wall effectively acts as a launch pad; when you push off the wall in a pool, you are using the momentum of that action to reduce how much you actively need to be swimming under your own power.  And this reduction isn’t an insignificant amount (hence why pool swimmers do specifically train and develop their ability to push off the wall well during their events).  The push off the wall is the fastest speed you will reach during a pool swim.    (Unless you dive in; if you dive in, the speed of the dive will be the fastest speed you reach.)  

The specific demand of open water swimming doesn’t allow for this speed gain since there are not any walls.  As such, athletes training for events that involve open water swimming should consider reducing or eliminating strong pushes off the wall in their training swims in pools.  Doing so will enable them to be stronger and faster when they do need to swim continuously without walls in open water.

The Bottom Line

There are actually many purposes for indoor workouts for endurance athletes.  Maintaining consistency of movement and training is arguably the most important one.  Enabling athletes to develop their cardiorespiratory fitness is another.  But an equally important purpose is to replicate the real-world demand of outdoor workouts and of the goal events that matter most to athletes.  

Indoor workouts provide a safe, stable environment in which to establish these habits.  At the same time, the indoor environment is ripe with distractions and potential scenarios that can pull athletes away from doing so.  Most endurance athletes spend a non-trivial amount of their annual training time completing workouts indoors; for many athletes, their indoor training time equates to a minimum of 3-6 months per year.  If you don’t use this time to establish good habits and behaviors, you are squandering at least 25-50% of your training time.  Don’t fall victim to this.  Before you begin any indoor workout, always ask yourself the following questions:

• “How can I use this workout to set me up for success - both today and four months from now?”
• “What can I do in this workout to ensure that I execute it as closely as possible to what I would do outdoors or on race day?”

By embracing the truth that what you do now in your indoor workouts will - positively or negatively - impact what you are able to do later in training in terms of both workouts, behaviors, and performance - you can ensure that you are best leveraging each indoor workout you do to help positively build your skills, your confidence, and to set yourself up for the highest probability of successfully reaching your goals.